Monday, January 14, 2013

The buddy situation

A glimpse into our home...

The girls have three million stuffed animals, which they lovingly refer to as "buddies."  Here and there, Rich mentions "controlling" the buddy situation.  I always gasp, "We can't do that!"  They do actually play with them quite frequently so I would feel bad.  Plus, I'm in the camp of "you're only a little kid once."

Emily's buddies are split into different families, mainly The Sparkle Family and The Gone Family.  (Dog Gone is the dad of The Gone Family.)  She was the one who originally implemented the Buddies Hang Out On The Couch All Day program.  As you can see in this Christmas morning photo, Emily is transferring an armful of buddies from her bedroom to the couch.

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See them on the couch?

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That was a condensed group for the holiday.

I took these pictures last weekend to document a normal day.  Here's Emily's couch -

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And Allie's couch -

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Anna's buddies were forced to hang out on the floor.  I think they were taking a break after their gymnastics competition.

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I look at it this way - it could be a lot worse.  They could be tearing apart the house or zoning out in front of the television.  I think that's a good parenting lesson to learn, especially when the kids are older.  Are your kids really doing something that bad?  I drove my parents crazy for years begging them to take me to and later to allow me to go NKOTB concerts.  They were actually pretty good about it and stepped outside of their comfort zone.  Years and year later (maybe when I was 30ish), there was some conversation going on about my NKOTB obsession and my dad said, "You know, I don't know why we gave you such a hard time about that.  You were a good kid.  You weren't out causing trouble or drinking or doing drugs.  You just wanted to go to concerts."  I didn't have kids back then but my dad's comment stuck with me.  [Someone will have to remind me of this post when I tweet that I'm stuffing plugs into my ears at the next generation's Justin Bieber concert.]

Speaking of... I joined Twitter.  We'll see how it goes.  I do have to say that so far, I love my iPhone.  You can find me @SarahJaneTriple.  I just set it up last night so be forewarned that I'm a newbie.   

11 comments:

Unknown said...

We have a major stuffed animal explosion going on, but she loves them and plays with them, too. I had a ton of stuffed animals as a kid, so I feel like it would be a bit hypocritical to crack down.

Unknown said...

I'm a twin and have been reading your blog for a while. I just had to comment on this because it is so true! My twin sister LOVES Disney. We are 19 from NJ and she wants to work at Disney World for a semester since her school allows her to do that and still get class credit.

Whenever my mom says something about her love for Disney, she always says that she could be out doing drugs or getting wasted, so is loving Disney really that bad?! I thought that is relevant to this post.

I love your blog and everything you post. =]

Caroline

Anonymous said...

Funny that you did a blog on the buddies...just yesterday I was telling Papa that I rarely get to sit on the sofa because of all the buddies. Plus I have to clean it off 3 or 4 times a day so Anna and I can use at least one end of the sofa :)
Love, Grammy

Chantel said...

we have quite the buddy situation here too. CLaudia rotates them all on her own, alternating who goes with her to daycare, on shopping trips and so forth. Each day she got to pick something out at Disneyland and each day it was a new "buddy". She loves them and is thrilled.

My parents were good about my NKOTB stuff, too. I don't think they loved spending money on NKOTB slippers but I was a good kid so they let it go!

linda said...

My girls are older and their "buddies" on the couch are now boyfriends! One bit of advice I can give you is to never, ever let Barbie move in.....that doll takes up more room than you can ever imagine! Love your blog and the girls are beautiful!!

Kayla said...

Your couches look like my couches, and floors, and tables...buddies, buddies everywhere.

Unknown said...

We have a daybed in my kid's room. It is covered in plush. Covered. I want to remove the daybed for more play space but then what would we do with all the plush? No idea. And like you said, she plays with them and it could be worse. :)

Anonymous said...

haha I LOVE this! My girls are only 5 months old, so we don't have this problem *yet*. However, being the big kid that I am, it's ME who has the "buddies all over the couch" problem. I have stuffed sheep & turtles propped up along the entire back of our couch. They've been there before I was even pregnant. Needless to say, I will gladly welcome additional buddies as my girls see fit. ;)

Sarah said...

Eeeek! I don't even want to think about boyfriends. We have Barbie too but she's contained right now. lol

Souza Sisters said...

We have the same "problem" at our house!! There are stuffed animals everywhere!! And like your girls, mine play with theirs all the time! I could never put them away. They would freak out...

Unknown said...

This is awesome and they are adorable!

Madison

http://foreverroomies.blogspot.com